Ghost-singing was pretty hush-hush until Deborah Kerr blew the lid off the whole thing by freely admitting in interviews that Marni Nixon was doing her singing in The King And I. Nixon had the uncanny ability to modulate her singing voice to fit in with the speech patterns of the actor she was dubbing, hence her decades long career.
Nixon famously dubbed Audrey Hepburn’s voice for My Fair Lady, with the exception of ‘Just You Wait ‘Enry ‘Iggins.’ I’ve seen an interview with Hepburn where she sounds pissed off about it. It’s the only time in my life I’ve ever seen Hepburn visibly and audibly angry about something. Damn. Wish I could find that interview. At any rate, here’s Hepburn UN-DUBBED singing ‘I Could Have Danced All Night.’
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbebD653agE
She’s a little pitchy.
And she’s weak in the top end.
Not a horrible voice…but not the best.
Dubbing was the right choice.